Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

From left to right: Just click on one already. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 457th installment in our ongoing series!

Over at the G.I. Joe Convention Page they are now showing card art for another exclusive, Rowdy Roddy Piper. This is somewhat baffling, as celebrities were integrated to the '82 Joe line as a great marketing stunt, but to bring in someone at this stage in the game for a limited edition collector figure with no real connection to the person in question is just odd.

As a new entry in a franchise that essentially jump-started the notion of a game character being a mascot who could sell you on other, newer games, Pac-Man has had a lot of ups and downs. The original game and Ms. Pac-Man are bona-fide classics, while Pac-Mania is a great game, although some may disagree. And then there's Pac-Man World and other dull games, with rare gems like the GameCube Pac-Man Vs. making up for the poor yellow fellow's high miss-to-hit ratio in recent years. This new one is a hit-- if you played the first two games and liked them, this is for you. If you liked them as a kid and find them antiquated and fairly quaint, keep reading-- this makes the "go-through-a-maze-and-eat" gameplay supremely exciting.

Gameplay: It's essentially the same as the original game. Essentially. Instead of one maze "board," imagine a screen with two. In the middle, there's the area from which the ghosts respawn. On the left, one maze. On the right, another. When you eat all the dots on one side, a piece of fruit reappears, and when you eat it, the maze on the opposite side reforms with new walls, new pellets, and other changes. There are no breaks between "stages," it's just a nonstop eating frenzy that lasts until the ghosts get you, or five/ten minutes-- depending on the mode. The game starts off slow but gets incredibly fast as you play, and we guarantee you've never seen the ghosts or Pac-Man move that fast before. It slowly ratchets up the overall speediness, but it needs to-- you're racing against the clock here. No matter how good you are, you can't beat the clock, and when the time runs out your game is over. The nice thing about this is that it makes it possible to have a "quick game" that lasts either five or ten minutes, and that's the end of it-- your super-awesome friend won't be able to hog the game on a single play all night long, like he may have been able to do with the originals.

Modes: The original Pac-Man was pretty basic, with one "maze" and that's about it. Pac-Man: CE features six different options for mazes when you start, and the mazes change as you clear them, with several stages of each. As the game has no real ending-- the timer runs out, or you die-- this is welcome because it gives you several options rather than the one option you usually get with these games. No doubt, that's why it costs more.

Multiplayer: None. While the Xbox 360 does allow you to keep a voice chat open while playing any games, so you could be playing this while your friend could be playing anything else, there's no direct "versus" mode or anything like that. It would've been fun to have two matches going at once so you could both start and stop at the same time and monitor your scores, but alas, that's not what this game is about. It's about points.

Leaderboards: This is where the replay value comes in, but only if you meet one or both of these criteria: a) you're insanely competitive, or b) you have friends playing this game. Obviously, after you've unlocked the game's 12 achievements (not too hard to do in a day or two), there's not a heck of a lot left you can do other than get them again, or keep trying for a better score. Since the game has six modes, there are six high score lists, and you can monitor a "buddy list" of high scores which shows you how you're doing against specific people that you know, as well as the entire world. We're currently in a high score war with this poor fool, where we keep leapfrogging over one another in all six boards. It's quite fun if you have a small competitive streak, but if you have friends who don't get some thrill over getting better and higher scores, seeing them beat, and doing it again, this may not be fun for you. We didn't think it'd be fun, but we're enjoying it immensely and it causes us to keep coming back to this game for more when we'd otherwise be more or less "done" with it.

(It's also worth noting that, at press time, the world's top players are all Japanese, so there's no hope for us yet.)

Achievements: Nothing too fancy here-- we scored all 200 points (hence, why we're finding it worth writing about) and many of them are fairly simple. Hit Target Score X. Finish all six modes. Stuff like that-- if you're really good, you could do all of them in an afternoon or two.

Graphics & Sound: A steady quasi-techno beat fits the black-and-neon atmosphere nicely, and may remind you of an arcade or a club you went to at some point. The visuals are essentially just enhanced, high-definition versions of the originals-- still tiny pixels, still simple, still functional. In other words, they didn't screw up what worked, so nobody's going to bemoan, for example, him suddenly having feet. Aside from the higher resolution and a few fancy-pants effects, pretty much everything you see here could've been done 20 years ago, assuming the systems had a tad more memory and a wider aspect ratio.

In short, it's a new version of the game that so many of us associate with the early 1980s The game was helmed by Toru Iwatani, designer of the original game, as his final game before retirement. If you want to read more about this game, we suggest you use Google and find out all the interesting tales and goings-on surrounding the various Pac-Man World Championships which no doubt inspired this title. Which, we should add, costs 800 MS Points (US $10) and is totally worth it.

This was supposed to go up like a week and a half ago, but well, that's how things go sometimes.

Today at Galactic Hunter we look at an old figure given a second life with new accessories with the pilot release of Anakin Skywalker! He's short, has a hat, and a flight yoke. Are you sold yet? If not, read on!

From the NES: Adventures of Lolo, a great puzzle game from the minds who would eventually create the Kirby series. From the TurboGrafx-16, it's Galaga 90, which everyone is telling us is actually pretty good. From the Nintendo 64: Wave Race 64, an early game which showed off what the system could do and, unfortunately, was one of the highlights of the entire console's lifespan.

After weeks of quality releases, or double releases, Microsoft bores everyone with this week's option. A port of Konami's Track & Field is up, which, we're sure, is great if you care. We don't. We love Konami's games but this one, not so much. So yeah, you can go and download the demo if you want, we'll be spending more time with Super Contra instead. Because we crave abuse from our electronic entertainment. (C'mon Konami, your roster is pure awesome. There's the Simpsons arcade game, Salamander, Gradius, Goonies, Castlevania, and countless others. Even the sequel to this game wasn't half bad.)

Did someone get our letters? Did our prayers get answered? Does someone at Yujin just really like us? We don't know, but NCS is selling a set of SR Shooting Video Game History Gashapon with five space ships from classic games. If you aren't probably 20 or older you won't care, but if you're us (and we are us) you'll flip over the fact that someone so much as thought of this toy line. The set is pre-ordering for $20, and you get the Vic Viper from Gradius (oooh), The R-9A Arrow-Head from R-Type (ahhh), the Metarion from the MSX Gradius 2 (glee), Gradius Gaiden's Silver Hawk (schweet), and the 0F-1 Daedalus from from Image Fight, which we've never actually heard of, ever.

We're gonna order this one. Seeing how much email you send us regarding video game toys, we hope you're not going to be stupid and wait on this one-- get your orders in. Because if you ask us if we have any for sale down the road, the answer will be "no, dammit." (And if that doesn't strike your fancy, the same site has something called "Brilliant Venus Trading Cards" which no doubt will.)

Today at Galactic Hunter we start with a look at yet another Rebel Trooper figure, one of two from a recently released battle pack. While not super-poseable, the figure was originally released in 2001, and this version adds a new head and removable helmet. Did Hasbro do its best work the first time around, or is this version both new and improved? Read on!

And who could live without a tiny Padawan like Jempa from Attack of the Clones? With a tiny lightsaber and helmet, this toddler is ready to train for battle. Is it time to start your own Jedi preschool figure collection? Read on!

The Fall/Holiday mass market Playmobil items are hitting-- that's the good news. The bad news? These items, which are shipping to the likes of Target and Toys "R" Us in the USA, aren't the most thrilling ever-- good, sure, but not awesomeness incarnate. Pictured is the only new single-boxed Playmobil Pals figure to be hitting the stores. The assortment is rounded out with pirate and knight figures repackaged, missing the "Pals" logo, and missing the names from their previous releases. This Knight is set #4666, and we saw it at Target for $1.99.

Other new items is a pirate/knight assortment of deluxe figures, which we've seen at both Toys "R" Us and Target. For a smidge over five bucks, you can get a Gladiator with a Lion (#5813), a Pirate with a cannon and a rocky fort (#5807), or a Knight with a horse and squire (#5805). Good deals, to be sure, and the Roman-themed Gladiator set is probably the most exciting of the bunch. These seem to be hitting widely right now, so if you don't see them today, wait a minute.

A new line of two-packs of figures is also hitting, but so far only at Target. Each set is $2.99 and, unusual for Playmobil, is blister carded like most action figures. The sets include a Roman warrior and a gladiator (#5817), a couple of pirates (#5814), a couple of knights (#5815), and a cop plus a criminal (#5816). Each figure in the set has accessories and many (if not all) may have been culled from previously released, larger gift sets. Other new boats, a Skull Island playset, and a new, foldable castle were also showing up at Target but we didn't scribble down as many notes as we should have to get you names and numbers, but it looks like these items (and a new jet) are all $30 or far less. Some Roman sets are showing up as well.

While not as varied as the Spring Pals assortment, with its deep sea diver, Roman warrior, and baby seal, well, we guess this lineup is OK. (Even if it lacks the dinosaurs we sorely crave.)

In one of the more retro moves of the year, developer/publisher Taito will be releasing Arkanoid in Japan for the Nintendo DS with a dial/spinner controller you can plug into the cartridge port of your system. (Those with long memories may recall they did the same thing with the NES.) If nobody announces a US release date, we're totally buying the import (as the DS has no regional lockouts.) Famitsu has screen shots of the game, and Gamersquad has shots of all four colors of the paddle controller which, we assume, is sold separately. As there haven't exactly been a lot of legit ports of Arkanoid as of late, you have no idea how excited we are. (We still play Arkanoid II on the Super NES all the time.)

Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

From left to right: Mon Mothma, Clone Trooper, Princess Leia, Mace Windu. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 463rd installment in our ongoing series!

Every week, stores in the USA put ads in the Sunday newspapers to let you know what special deals they're offering. Since we're looking these up anyway, we figured we'd share what we see-- and don't see.

Circuit City is offering a free copy of Rockstar Table Tennis when you buy the "premium" ($350) Xbox 360 system, and the Xbox Live 360 12+1 Month Subscription Card is $39.99 ($10 off). The Playstation 3 controller is $39.99 ($10 off). All "cool deals" games are 25% off, meaning there's a lot of decent games for about $7.49. Examples include PSP Bust-A-Move, GameBoy Advance Pac-Man Collection, and Xbox Fable.

Best Buy is offering a $10 gift card when you pre-order any game $39.99 and up. If you buy an Xbox 360 for $349.99, you get a free copy of Top Spin 2.

It looks likeKmart, Target, Toys "R" Us, and Wal-Mart have nothing particularly notable in their ads.

Today at Galactic Hunter we look at that old spinster of a bounty hunter Zuckuss! With no resculpt in sight, and the dubious honor of being the last modern bounty hunter to see plastic, you probably bought this one. We mean, you did, right? If not, read on!

From the NES: Metroid, a classic game from back when Nintendo could invent new characters that people cared about more often than once every 5-10 years. From the TurboGrafx-16, it's Cratermaze, which we presume includes craters and/or mazes. From the Sega Genesis: Shining in the Darkness, a dungeon RPG which is sure to please fans of such things.

Two games this week. Expect these at about 1 AM Pacific Wednesday morning. First is Ecco the Dolphin, a supposedly souped-up reissue of the classic Sega Genesis dolphin platformer, which most fans remember fondly. The other title is Hexic 2, the sequel to the game that came with your Xbox 360 for free that you don't play.

For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.

If you have iTunes 4.9 or above: You can subscribe to it for free. Just search for "Adam Pawlus" under Podcasts in the iTunes music store, or just go to "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste in "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml". And you should be all hooked up.

If you're using an RSS reader: Subscribe to this feed: "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml".

Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

From left to right: Hairy thing, robot thing, John Kerry, some dork in a hoodie, a guy with a metal rod between his legs, and a kid in a helmet. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 471st installment in our ongoing series!

Wondering what Megatron will look like in next year's new animated series? Click the picture, as it's on a temporary preview cover for a new IDW comic collection. He looks very G1, and has a sword. Nice.

In what we can only assume was a hit show for the cable network, Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program is coming to DVD this Fall, no doubt to cash in on the show's second season. TVShowsondvd.com has the full scoop, news on extras, and front-and-back package art.

Not content to let Square classics have all the fun, the old NES (not super) Enix game Dragon Quest IV is going to be remade as a mostly 3D game for the DS, and The Magic Box has four pages of pictures. While we have essentially sworn off RPGs as sinkholes of time which we haven't really taken the time to beat, this looks pretty awesome, as does the remake of Final Fantasy IV.

We'd rundown the ad game deals this week but were disappointed with what we saw and are opting not to.

Due out this month, the game Space Giraffe's long journey to the Xbox Live Arcade service has been fairly well documented courtesy of things like the publisher's chieftan Jeff Minter's LiveJournal as well as the official company blog. Minter has been in the game world for decades, but is best known for trippy graphics, remakes of Tempest, and remakes of Tempest with trippy graphics. (You may recall he did Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar over 10 years ago.) Through some very low level research we found out the game is going to be a super-cheap 400 points ($5)

The Official Xbox Magazine gave it a 2 out of 10. While this might seem damning, we decided to look at an issue of their magazine we bought for the Katamari demo last month and see how they score things. Bomberman Live got an 8.5, which seems about right-- but then again, so did Hexic 2, which seems odd on several levels. The staggeringly wonderful Pac-Man Championship Edition got a 6.5, which, to us, well, that ain't right. You can read all about it on the Yak Yak forums which is their official forum or whatever. (Bonus content: Minter posted a retort to the magazine, something we don't see enough developers do.)

Of course, why are we posting this? We're antsy that Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD hasn't yet been released and are paying extra close attention to any news related to the downloadable arcade service, and well, we like shooters. Also notable, the Official Xbox Magazine posts early reviews of Live Arcade games due out in the next month or so-- and assuming they're right, here's what we have to look forward to in September: Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD, Undertow, and some other stuff nobody cares about.

Today at Galactic Hunter we look at an old figure which has been redone many times, but still, we have to love this Battle Droid! He's short, has a hat, and a flight yoke. Are you sold yet? If not, read on!

If we didn't already own this week's keystone title, we'd be doing cartwheels over it. From the Super NES: Super Metroid, a game which brings you everything you love about the series before it jumped into the third dimension-- if you have never played it, you should probably do something about that. If you enjoyed the kind of games the world played between 1987 and 1995, this is the game for you. From the TurboGrafx-16, it's Neutopia, to which we are fairly indifferent. From the Sega Genesis: Shinobi III, which has ninjas.

Two games this week, which should be live late late tonight (or early Wednesday). One is Jeff Minter's Space Giraffe, a rarity in that the person behind the game is probably bigger than the game itself. Microsoft says it's 800 points, Minter says it's 400 points. Which is true? No idea. But apparently it's a colossal pain to learn how to play and sessions demand a long period of time to get into it. The other release for this week is Street Trace NYC, which is 800 points and combines hoverboarding with extreeemness. We'll try the demo, be angry we tried the demo, and get back to you later.

Today at Galactic Hunter we start with a look at 1999's padawan version of Anakin Skywalker, a figure with a cloak and what is essentially a tiny version of the CommTech Reader. While not super-poseable, the little guy is the only version of Anakin in this costume. So since you don't have any other options, should you get this one? Read on!

Since it seems all troopers are clones these days, it only makes sense that Hasbro reimagined the Stormtrooper from Star Wars with Jango Fett's face and a removable helmet. Essentially a better, whiter, cheaper version of the 2004 "Vintage" figure, what's not to love? Read on!

Over at TVShowsOnDVD.com, there's full packaging art of the DVD edition of Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. That's the good news. The bad? The 12-disc set has an MSRP well over $100. Watch for it in stores this October.

Oh, how sweet it will be. Our favorite (domestic) release for the Sega Saturn is coming to the Xbox 360 next week for $10, as well as the Playstation 3 for the same price. Capcom's blog has some details on the release, but we just can't freaking wait. (Online Puzzle Fighter was a selling point on the system-- seriously, were it not for this, we'd probably just be hammering out the gaming action on the PSP right now.) Yay.

Today at Galactic Hunter we look at another Star Tours figure nobody cares about, specifically SK-Z38. What do you get when you strip a Disney park animatronic bird and put a helicopter blade on top? This. And it's dull. Read on!

Earlier this weeks, analysts were tripping over themselves to be the first to say that the Sony PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 for the month of July, 2007. This was due to the price drop for Sony's system, and Microsoft's various woes. Well, turns out they were wrong-- Wii outsold everybody, even the DS, but the Xbox 360 still edged out over the PlayStation 3. GameDaily Biz has more with specific numbers and all of that stuff.

On the bright side for Sony, the new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer from Germany looks awesome.

Part of our day job is coming up with/approving/otherwise enabling exclusive products, and we're quite proud of this Animated Style Boba Fett Bobble Head, coming from Funko and Entertainment Earth this November. It just went up and if we were allowed to tell you how well it was selling, your head would spin. They're only making 2,000, so if you want one, order it now. It's dead sexy.

And as always, buying through these shameless plugs means we get a nickel or two, and we appreciate your shined nickels and loose change.

New Star Wars Vehicles! New Chekov cast? New Entertainment Earth Exclusive Boba Fett! New Old Transformers? We have lots of punctuation today, and we aren't afraid to use it-- hear all about all sorts of exciting junk, as well as impressions of the newly released Y-Wing Fighter toy, in today's episode.

For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.

If you have iTunes 4.9 or above: You can subscribe to it for free. Just search for "Adam Pawlus" under Podcasts in the iTunes music store, or just go to "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste in "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml". And you should be all hooked up.

If you're using an RSS reader: Subscribe to this feed: "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml".

Also, Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

From left to right: Admiral Motti, Lando Calrissian, Watto. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 477th installment in our ongoing series!

The prospect of very few games would turn us into drooling, stupid fanboys. One of these games is Arkanoid, which is coming back out, but this time for the Nintendo DS. The Magic Box has two pages of preview screen shots plus all four dial controllers, so check those out. Or don't, as odds are it won't be coming to the USA anyway at this rate.

Today at Galactic Hunter we look at a remake of one of the vintage line's most distinctive figures with Droopy McCool! He's pudgy, eyeless, and topfree. (We'd say "topless" but that doesn't sound as classy.) Are you man enough to buy one? Read on!

Some decent stuff this week, with no Turbografx-16 filler. From the NES: Super C, Konami's fairly excellent port of a very hard shooter. From the Super NES, it's Breath of Fire II, a Capcom RPG that people freaking loved. From the Sega Genesis: Super Ghouls & Ghosts, an awesome game worth playing if you haven't already got it on another system.

We're very pleased to see more shots of these guys, but we're a little disappointed to see figures seem to be recycling a lot of parts. Shipwreck and Buzzer, for example, seems to have the Duke/Flint body, while Stalker looks like he was based on Snake Eyes. We're all for recycling tooling, but yeesh, this is fast. Still, click on through for a peek-- they're nifty enough, although we're not entirely sure we'll be keeping up with this line from here on out.

So far, but one game has been confirmed for the week-- but it's a doozy. After much waiting, the reason we bought the system, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD, is going up for download after 1 AM tonight. Dude. 800 points, or in real money, US $10. We can't freaking wait.

Also new: an expansion pack to Bomberman Live with 10 new costumes, a "frag" mode, a couple of new stages, and more. Depending on the report you read, it's 250 or 350 points. There's also an expansion for Eets Chowdown but we haven't yet discovered if we like the regular game or not.

Figure of the Day has been updated! The daily feature on figures you might have but might not-- either way, here's what you've been missing! Spanning from the original Power of the Force series of 1995 to the latest of the 30th Anniversary Collection, it's almost like a history lesson!

From left to right: Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, R2-D2, Mustafar Sentry. Go to Galactic Hunter for the next update, with the 482nd installment in our ongoing series!

First, Microsoft and Sega surprised everybody with a port of the game Streets of Rage 2 for 400 points. This, along with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD and a couple of add-on packs, round out this week's content. So far we're somewhat pleased with Puzzle Fighter, although it seems elements of how the online component works are fundamentally broken.

Next week, Microsoft confirmed two new 400 point games. One is Cyberball 2072, a robot football game remake which we don't have much to say about just yet. The other is SNK's Fatal Fury Special, which has grabbed our interest. We'd be even more interested if Microsoft had a decent fighting stick we could go buy. And we might wait for one.

This weekend, starting Saturday 5 PM Pacific time, Microsoft is going to have a sale on what we presume are four slow-sellers on its Xbox Live Arcade Service. Dig Dug and Gauntlet will each be 200 points ($2.50), while Zuma and Small Arms will each be 400 points ($5.00). The sale ends Monday at about 5 PM, so don't say we didn't warn you.

For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.

If you have iTunes 4.9 or above: You can subscribe to it for free. Just search for "Adam Pawlus" under Podcasts in the iTunes music store, or just go to "Subscribe to Podcast" and paste in "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml". And you should be all hooked up.

If you're using an RSS reader: Subscribe to this feed: "http://www.entertainmentearth.com/podcasts/podcast.xml".

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